The criminal justice system in our community completely depends upon the trust of the community: the trust that police will do their job honestly, the trust that your lawyer will fight for you and not sell you out and the trust that the judges are honest and independent.

Of the lawyer, they said, “EF's actions in purporting to act as counsel for the convicted persons while covertly informing against them were fundamental and appalling breaches of EF's obligations as counsel to her clients and of EF's duties to the court.”

Of the police, they said, "Victoria Police were guilty of reprehensible conduct in knowingly encouraging EF to do as she did and were involved in sanctioning atrocious breaches of the sworn duty of every police officer to discharge all duties imposed on them faithfully and according to law.”

Loading

Think about this for a moment. This is the highest court in the land describing the conduct of the Victoria Police as reprehensible and as “sanctioning atrocious breaches” of their sworn duty to the community.

It is not possible to imagine a greater criticism of the police and a lawyer.

With this in mind, I hope that the royal commission will vigorously pursue all wrongdoers and seek to restore some trust in the community. The Hayne royal commission into banking and financial services is an outstanding example of what can be done. I note that Kenneth Hayne is a retired High Court judge and his wife, Michelle Gordon, is currently a High Court judge herself. This shows that there are lawyers of integrity who can be trusted.

The royal commission into the police conduct must satisfy the requirements stated by the High Court in this matter, namely, that “the maintenance of the integrity of the criminal justice system demands that the information be disclosed and that the propriety of each convicted person's conviction be re-examined in light of the information".

So here we have judges we can trust to be strong and honest. I hope that the royal commission will sweep out corrupt police and corrupt lawyers so that Victorians may, once again, trust the criminal justice system. Then, maybe once again, police and lawyers will be trusted.